AWS is a comprehensive Infrastructure-as-a-Service platform offering 200+ services for computing, storage, and databases, while Cloudflare is a specialized content delivery and security platform focused on edge computing and DDoS protection. AWS serves as a primary cloud provider for enterprise workloads, whereas Cloudflare excels as a complementary service or lightweight alternative for web performance and security.
Cloudflare vs AWS — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
CDN and cybersecurity platform providing DDoS protection, performance optimization, and security services.
Comprehensive cloud infrastructure platform with 200+ services for compute, storage, databases, and enterprise solutions.
Primary Use Case. Service Count. Global Data Centers. Starting Price (Monthly). DDoS Protection. Database Services. Setup Complexity
Choose AWS if you need comprehensive cloud infrastructure, scalable compute, multiple database options, and building entire applications from scratch—it's the industry standard for enterprise workloads despite higher complexity and cost. Choose Cloudflare if you prioritize ease of deployment, edge security, global CDN performance, DDoS protection out-of-the-box, and want to complement existing infrastructure without managing servers.
Cloudflare: $10.20 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $130+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Developer-focused | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Cloudflare DNS primary | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: DDoS, threat intelligence, WARP, Magic | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Community & documentation | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $10.20 (at-cost) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Excellent for enterprise | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 4.5 stars | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 476 reviews | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 30% | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Industry standard | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Highly accessible with strong freemium | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 74% planning to expand | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Comprehensive and standardized | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Superior and broader distribution | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 265,000+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 31% (Q3 2025: $562M) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Growing (not disclosed) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Workers Bindings, multimodal models, AI agents | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 230+ billion threats blocked | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Free tier + affordable paid plans | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Not specified | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 200+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 230 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 0 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 74% | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Per-domain flat-rate plans | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Limited; requires manual configuration | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 100+ countries | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 230 billion threats (2026) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Yes, included in plans | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Cloudflare Workers (lightweight functions) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Limited, requires manual configuration | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Simple DNS-based setup | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Predictable, no hidden charges | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 275+ edge cities | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Unlimited on all plans | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Free tier available | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 310+ globally | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 73% | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Included on all plans | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 24/7 community + paid support | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: No (requires external provider) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Not applicable | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 30-60 minutes | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 300+ cities | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 280+ CloudFront locations
Cloudflare: 3.8M requests/month | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 121 Tbps network capacity | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: No native VMs; Workers $5-200/month | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $20/month Pro plan | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 23ms (fastest DNS globally) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Supported Programming Languages (Workers/Serverless)
Cloudflare: JavaScript/TypeScript, Rust, C, C++ (WebAssembly) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 15 minutes (Enterprise) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $9.00 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $12.00 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 300+ across 100+ countries | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
DNS Query Response Time (Global Average)
Cloudflare: ~65-85ms | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 3.2 Tbps | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Yes - full CDN, DNS, DDoS protection | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Cloudflare Workers - included | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 275+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Yes - full-featured | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 37% average | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Advanced (free tier + enterprise) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Free Universal SSL all plans | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Unlimited (CDN-based) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 71+ Tbps | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Partial (requires Access addon) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 50+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 10-15 minutes | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 99.95% | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $20 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Unlimited | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Not optimized | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Yes, included | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 5-10 (DNS propagation) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 120 | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Cloudflare Workers (full serverless) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 25+ core services | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ services
Cloudflare: $20 (Pro plan) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0 (free tier), pay-as-you-go
Cloudflare: Yes, all plans | Amazon Web Services (AWS): No (Shield Advanced: $3,000/month)
Cloudflare: 5 minutes (DNS change) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 120+ minutes (full configuration)
Cloudflare: 1 (Cloudflare D1 beta) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 15+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Redshift, etc.)
Cloudflare: ~30ms (median global) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~80ms (median global)
Cloudflare: 150 Tbps (Pro plan) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~700 Gbps (AWS Shield Advanced)
Cloudflare: 5-15 minutes | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Yes ($20/month plan) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Native REST + GraphQL APIs | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: ~35ms | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $20 (Pro plan) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 1 (D1 SQLite) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Workers AI (beta), limited models | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Serverless Function Cost (1M executions/month)
Cloudflare: $1.50 (Workers) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Not offered (Kubernetes at edge via Workers) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 300+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Yes (with core features) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Global Website Speed Improvement (Average)
Cloudflare: 30-35% | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: L3/L4 included | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: $0/month | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Free (1 year, then pay-as-you-go infrastructure costs)
Cloudflare: N/A (not a registrar) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: 300+ | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 108 availability zones in 33 regions
Cloudflare: $0 (included) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: Yes (Pro plan+) | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.023
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.004
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Multiple models via Bedrock
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS Outposts (limited)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Fargate (feature-rich)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32%
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 5/10
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8/10
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Moderate (Outposts)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 4/10
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Largest
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Strong (ECS/EKS)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Via Athena/Redshift
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS only
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): Pay-per-use only
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33 regions
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 105+ zones
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 190+ native services
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 30-45 (via Console/CLI)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS CloudFormation requires manual GitHub setup
Monthly Cost (1 vCPU, 1GB RAM, Standard Instance)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $9.50 (t3.micro on-demand)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0116
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 32% of global cloud infrastructure (2024)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0416
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.02
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8-12 hours (SageMaker)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 15-30 seconds (Athena, 1TB scan)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $15,000
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 18-25 steps (EKS setup)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 12 months + always-free services
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 1 hour (Business Support)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): SageMaker, Bedrock, Forecast, Lookout, Kendra
Monthly Cost for 10TB Egress Data Transfer
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $116 (after 1GB free)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 120 minutes
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 125ms (Lambda standard)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 45-60 (configure VPC, IAM, EC2, security groups)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 8+ (RDS, DynamoDB, Aurora, ElastiCache, Neptune, DocumentDB, Keyspaces, Timestream)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 99.99% (us-east-1 region)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 50,000+ (t3.large EC2)
Estimated Learning Time for New Developer
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 80-100 hours
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): N/A (not a single GitHub repo)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 3 languages (YAML, JSON, TypeScript/Python/Java via CDK)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 200+ AWS-specific services (largest portfolio in cloud)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 33+ geographic regions with 105+ availability zones
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 1M+ AWS Certified professionals
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0 (free tier + pay-per-use)
Cost for Standard Production App (2 dynos + add-ons)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $100-150 (EC2 Reserved + RDS)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 60-480
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 24,576
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 100-3000
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): No, requires CodePipeline ($0.02/active pipeline)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): 31
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): ~75%
Compute Instance Starting Price (hourly)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): $0.0116/hour (t3.micro)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): up to 72%
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): RDS for SQL Server (third-party)
Cloudflare: N/A | Amazon Web Services (AWS): SageMaker (launched 2017)
How to choose between Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Compare Cloudflare vs Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Cloudflare vs AWS — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for Cloudflare vs AWS. Contains 182 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
Cloudflare vs AWS — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Cloudflare vs AWS.
Yes, absolutely. Cloudflare is typically used in front of AWS as an edge layer for security and performance. You'd point your domain to Cloudflare's nameservers, and Cloudflare routes traffic to your AWS origin servers. This is a common enterprise pattern—Cloudflare handles edge caching and DDoS protection while AWS handles the backend compute.
Cloudflare is cheaper for small websites. Cloudflare Pro costs $20/month flat with included DDoS protection and CDN. AWS's free tier (first 12 months) can be free, but post-free-tier costs depend on usage and can quickly exceed $20/month. For predictable costs on small projects, Cloudflare wins.
Cloudflare D1 (their SQLite-compatible database) is available in beta but still limited. For production databases at scale, AWS offers 15+ mature options: RDS for SQL, DynamoDB for NoSQL, Redshift for data warehousing. Cloudflare is not a database platform—it's designed as a content and security layer in front of databases.
Does AWS have an edge network like Cloudflare?
AWS has CloudFront (their CDN) and Lambda@Edge, but with only 33 regions vs Cloudflare's 320 data centers, Cloudflare's edge network is 3x denser globally. For ultra-low-latency edge computing and caching, Cloudflare's architecture is superior. AWS is better for regional compute and complex backend services.
Which requires more technical expertise?
AWS requires significantly more expertise. Cloudflare is accessible to beginners (change DNS, enable features). AWS requires understanding of VPCs, IAM, EC2, RDS, security groups, and 190+ other services. AWS has a steeper learning curve but offers deeper control and customization for complex architectures.
How to Choose Between Cloudflare and Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Primary Use Case: Cloudflare has Content delivery, security, and edge computing, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Comprehensive cloud infrastructure and computing.
Service Count: Cloudflare has 25+ core services, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 200+ services.
Global Data Centers: Cloudflare has 320+ data centers in 120+ countries, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 33 regions with 108 availability zones.
Starting Price (Monthly): Cloudflare has $20 (Pro plan), while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has $0 (free tier), pay-as-you-go from usage.
DDoS Protection: Cloudflare has Included in all plans, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Requires AWS Shield Standard (free) or Advanced ($3,000/month).
Database Services: Cloudflare has Limited (Cloudflare D1 in beta), while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has 15+ database options (RDS, DynamoDB, etc.).
Setup Complexity: Cloudflare has Simple DNS change or integration, while Amazon Web Services (AWS) has Steep learning curve, extensive configuration required.